The SSD Review The Worlds Dedicated SSD Education and Review Resource | 
TEST BENCH CONFIGURATION
| Motherboard | Asus Rampage III Gene SATA 6Gb/s USB3 |
| CPU | Intel i7-930 CPU@2.80Ghz (OC’d to 3.2Ghz) |
| RAM | 6Gb G.Skill 1600 Triple Channel |
| Graphics | MSI N460GTX DDR5 768MB |
| Power Supply | OCZ ModXStream-Pro 600w |
| CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper 212+ |
| OS | Windows 7 64 Bit Ultimate |
| Wifi | Belkin Surf & Share Wireless USB Adapter |
| Monitor | Dell E228WFP 22″ Flat Panel |
| Desktop Case | BitFenix Survivor Mid-Tower ATX Gaming Case (x) |
| Front Loading Mobile SSD Rack | Icy Dock SSD 4 x 2.5″ Mobile Rack (x) |
SOFTWARE
Software utilized for the review included Crystal Disk Mark, HDTune Pro, ATTO Benchmark, HDTach, along with FutureMark PCMark Vantage. All tests are conducted in Windows 7 safe mode, wherever possible, as this gives the truest result for evaluation purposes; the sole exception being PCMark Vantage which would not function in safe mode. Where the opportunity exists, tests are repeated to ensure accuracy and consistency of results.
BENCHMARKS
1. Crystal Disk Mark Ver. 3.0 X64
As interesting as it was seeing the two different PCB boards together, this result was unexpected and consistent after 3 tests. Many are of the opinion that the most accurate method of testing SSDs is by use of random data as we had done here. This is commonly used for the Samsung SSD, Intel as well as the Crucial C300 SSD. As SandForce controlled SSDs utilize compression in their storage techniques, Crystal scoring is somewhat skewed in side by side comparisons and, as such, The SSD Review will not draw this comparison. We will however, pit all of these drives against one another in real life simulated testing with PCMark Vantage x64 software so read on!
This test of the Samsung 470 Series 256 GB SSD is the best score we have seen out of a drive yet, given consideration to the sample method used (random) and disk access methods tested in Crystal. To add to this, their specifications detail read/write performance of 250MB/s and 220MB/s which is not even close to what we have achieved (Look Up). Quite frankly, it is an amazing score and the 4kb random write alone is a huge jump from the former Samsung offering.
2. ATTO Disk Benchmark Ver. 2.46
The ATTO testing is the format most used by manufacturers to confirm their performance scores. If one must compare the Samsung to a SandForce controlled drive, this would be a fair comparison and, suffice to say, both are in the same ball park. For our testing, we attach this in order to confirm the great performance results we have seen above.
3. HDTach Ver. 3.040
HDTach again seems to bring us consistent scoring while also confirming that CPU usage remains at 1% and disk access is 1%.
PG 1 – PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
PG 2 – TESTING CRITERIA
PG 3 – BENCHMARKS
PG 4 – FINAL THOUGHTS